Innovative Instruction Competition Response

There were a ton of really interesting things that could be used in the classroom that I saw at the Innovative Instruction Competition.
One thing that I thought was really cool was the use of a blue-tooth keyboard and mouse in the classroom for teaching students how to write an essay. The teacher would pass around the blue-tooth mouse and keyboard and students would be able to take turns writing and editing different parts of an essay. This is a very visual and hands-on way to teaching writing to the students and helps them to learn about the writing and editing process.
Another use of technology that I thought was really interesting was the use of a wikispace, primary documents, and the creation of a video to study the American Revolution. I thought that I was really neat how the presenters sought to have the students develop their own opinions about the Revolution. I also really liked how the teacher had the students defend their positions--by creating movie explaining how they felt.
I also really liked the group that sought to use the asyncretous videos to perform a debate in their classroom. I liked this because I believe that it will give some students needed time to formulate an argument and responses to arguments that you don't get if you do an in class debate. This may also help students feel much more comfortable with the activity and sharing their real thoughts and feelings.